It just ain't worth 20sen

A few nights ago on the 20th February 2009, the annual Sarawak Hornbill Award was held at the Riverside Majestic's Sarawak Chamber function hall. It is an event where the Sarawak Tourism Board together with the state tourism ministry pay tribute and award various individuals, government and non-government organisation and private companies for their contributions towards promoting and enchancing Sarawak as a tourist destination.

The dinner was a grand and formal event, men dressed in suit and tie, ladies in evening gowns and the ballroom was decorated with black and yellow ribbons, balloons and flowers. The award cum dinner night was graced with the presence of the Sarawak Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and other minnisters and VIPs. As guest indulge in the 'looks tasty only but taste like sh*t' food being served they were accompanied by music and performance by the St. Joseph school marching band.

Of course the main event, the awards presentation ensued. Many were given out for outstanding in this and in that but the most notable was the award for the cleaness public toilet which was awarded to the Sibu Municipal Council. Now, how many have actually visited the public restrooms in Sibu. I personally have not been there for quite sometime but friends that frequent the town on business trips have told me of the public amenities there. So the horrifying fact now is that if it is as bad as they descripted then the other public restrooms in other towns and cities in the state must be frightful.

The embarassing fact would be the thought that the public toilets in the capitol city of kuching is beyond mentioning till they can't even beat Sibu's. I am sure that those that have patronised the public restrooms here knows what I'm talking about. How many times have we when answering the call of nature and had to use one of these toilets have hurriedly walked in, hold their breaths, focus on the relieving job at hand and just high tail out of there as soon as possible even without bothering to wash one's hands. I joke you not, the experience is just traumatic.

Having two municipal councils here in Kuching, namely MBKS and DBKU, is as good as having none. What have us taxpayer's money budgeted to these councils gone too??? What is the purpose of the entrance fee paid to use these restroom used for if not for the maintenance of it??? Those toilet attendances and cleaners that earn salary from the council are there for what purpose if not to keep the cleanliness of the restrooms in check???

Millions of Ringgit every year is budgeted and invested into the tourism sector and it would be a shame if the conditions of these public toilet becomes the turn off factor. I do hope that the municipal council officers that were present during the dinner would take to heart and put in some effort to improve the conditions of these said restrooms. However, until they do I refuse to pay for the entrance fee of 20 sens that they are charging because frankly they just don't bloody deserve it.

Oh ya, another traumatising thing about that night was the emcee of the event. A very well dress and decent looking lady I must say. Her english sounded good all but all until she pronounced ensemble and yachting. She was by no means even near. For such an elegant and obviously money wasting function, why oh why did the organisers had to get such an English ignorant emcee. Guess after all the budget that was allocated for the dinner went into the decorations and pockets of some, they just didn't have enough left to get a proper English speaking emcee.